Today, I am Thankful for the Letters on My Fridge

Just a while ago, as I was cleaning the kitchen, I got incredibly angry.  While I was obviously trying to clean, Princess M was in a mad frenzy to drag every stuffed animal she owns into my living room.  Mr. C was folding towels.  The same 15 towels, mind you, that he has been "folding" for an hour now.  (He knows how to do this, and when we work together, he can do a whole load in ten minutes.)  In the midst of his folding, Princess M decided to start unfolding to wrap her babies in "blankies".  Mr. C started whining, Princess M started screaming, and me, well I was on the verge of tears because I was so incredibly frustrated.

I settled the argument and walked back into the kitchen thinking about how nice it would be to have a clean house that wasn't destroyed every morning within the first hour of waking up.  I thought about all of the things I could accomplish if I had the time I spent cleaning up after others, calming fights, and re-doing all of the chores I ask for help with.  I grabbed a rag and settled in front of the fridge.  As I did so, I silently prayed.

Lord, please give me patience with my children.  Please help me to stay calm in these trying times and remember that they are just kids, and that my house is their home too. Grant me understanding and wisdom.  Amen.

I opened my eyes, and starting pulling the letters off of the fridge.  As the it was emptied of the plastic alphabet, a sadness started to come over me.  It was blank, and it was so boring.  This struck me because so many times I have looked at these same letters on this same fridge and thought about how nice it would be for it to be organized and clear of the clutter.

How could I, the same person who just thought how nice it would be to have organization, be so sad because these clutter-causing letters were gone?  And then it hit me. 

I think God used that moment to show me that in the middle all of the chaos that is being at home with kids all day, there is a happiness that the clutter and the craziness creates as well. The sadness was because I couldn't imagine it being so blank.  Organization would mean that there were no kids there to play with those letters, no Princess to drag out all of her toys, no little boy there to help with the towels.  

A life without those letters on the fridge would be so...sad.

So today, I will be thankful for the letters on my fridge, and the chaos and the clutter and the kids that those letters represent.  I will be thankful for the hour-long towel folding sessions in my living room, and the babies wrapped in blankies all over my floors.  I'll have to work on being thankful for the screaming fits, but I'll try to appreciate them as well. 

Because one day, when the kids are grown and there's no longer the chaos and the craziness that comes with little ones, I'll have to face the sadness that comes when nothing but a blank fridge remains.  

Simple Summer Lunch

Last night, I made this

And today, I made this

Let me tell you, nothing compares to the taste of homemade bread. Except for grilled homemade bread. And grilled homemade bread with pimento cheese on it.  Oh my.  How good it was.  So good, in fact, that both kids at it.  And I might have ate two.  Maybe.  

What are you having for lunch today?